Fandom Observation toward ChadwithAj
November 8, 2019
Abstract:
Throughout this essay, observing an online community by their behavior and reaction or interaction with one another was the main task. By doing this ,what were used was field notes from the observation that was conducted. For this specific online community that was chosen was a youtuber that goes by ChadWithAj and lately he has been having an impact on his community due to the way they react to certain videos. This online community also have their own language and their own name which was given by the youtuber. Overall this online community was observed to understand their behavior,language and identity which is talked about throughout the essay.
Envision yourself crying to an extremely hot piece of chicken wing however you knew the outcome of tasting it yet despite your just following the trend. “ChadwithAJ” is a famous YouTuber known for his outrageous videos, some videos consist him trying the food himself such as hot wings which are ninety times hotter compare one jalapeño. An online community is a place where people can interact with each other but a place where any one can post anything throughout the day. After searching for an online community, one specific community catches my attention which goes by “Chidodians” or “Team Alboe”. This is based from a famous Youtuber named Jad Slaibeh or who goes by “ChadwithAj” whose from Ottawa Canada. This youtube channel has been going on for almost 6 years and still very actively. This youtube channel have 1.84 Mil subscribers so far with exactly 300 videos. Youtube in general is a big platform where people use it on a daily basis and more users come in every day. As for this community “Chidodians” or “Team Alboe”, the number of his viewers just keep rising up due to him providing new food content for the “Chidodians”. From the very start of his career his video consist of pranks and food challenges. Lately his food challenges has got many views and still today he is making different food challenges which are making his followers repost a video of themselves doing it on social media such as Instagram or their own YouTube Channel.
As I stated before, youtube is a place where new users or viewers come in everyday and as for this community it is just expanding by time because of every new video he uploads. After looking more into him and how he interacts with his supporters, I came across a Live on Instagram where he talks to his supporters and asks them questions. A few questions were “what country are you guys watching me from?” or he will let them join his Instagram live. By him letting them join his live I saw the fans very happy. Him doing this I estimated that most of his viewers are teens because the type of question he asked them but I am also amazed by how much love is shown in the community and his video uploads.
To further explain the content of this youtuber is based on food mostly and most of his viewers have an addiction with food or just love food. A recent video he uploaded was “who can make the perfect ice cream sundae”, after watching it I checked the comments and I saw a viewer who responded by saying “This ice cream sundae slaps harder than my moms belt” and after a few hours other viewers started reacting to the comment. Another thing that I noticed was that many of his supporters tagging “#TEAMALBOE” and that’s the group name of Jad’s friends. After every new upload from his youtube channel their will be a new hashtag based on the video but on rare occasions some videos will be taken down because parts of the video will be ASMR(Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) which new viewers gave complains about and described it as “weird”. This led to mob forming under the comments section with a lot of hate comments. A few were such as “if you don’t like it, f-off” and just by looking at this reaction just from a simple video being taken down I can clarify that the community “Chidodians” is a very responsive community. Some viewers will comment “Had to watch this before going to school” this shows his supporters are very responsive to his videos.
After doing a bit more research on the community another big platform they use is Instagram. After looking at a few posts I see that people post food and tag the youtuber. Some posts from the youtuber to the audience is a post with the tag “#TeamAlboe”, looking at the comment section their was certain people commenting “Can I be in team Alboe?” and the youtuber will reply to certain comments such as “My viewers always been in team Alboe”. Their reaction will be priceless because their favorite youtuber replied to their comment. Due to his good communication with his supporters, they see that he cares about them. One last thing I wanted to look for was a post with the tag “TeamAlboe sucks” and this post had so many hate comments. In order for people to see your comment on youtube it has to be liked by the viewers. One comment was “this is a fake Gordon Ramsay…wack ” and if you know Gordon Ramsay he is chef who also got famous because of his specialty in food. Most comments were inappropriate and this was nothing that I wasn’t expecting. The reason why I say this is because this post was targeting a community who admires Jad and have respect towards him. One last thing that I noticed was the “Chidodians” being influenced because of what they are posting on Instagram. The post was them re-creating these food challenges or doing similar pranks like the youtuber. After looking at some re-creation post by then fans, I saw that Jad will like it with his own verified account. Then the person themselves commented “can’t believe had liked my post”.
Overall this is a solid platform because of how they speak with one another about the recordings from the youtuber. Youtube has become a big platform to watch videos and especially teenagers who watches videos to entertain them self and who would watch random food challenges. Nowadays kids are influenced by what they watch, I see why this youtuber is successful and why they have a strong affection toward him and his videos. Their is always a new trend and people tend to follow what others are doing but you never know what the next trend might be.
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